Corrugated sheet-metal culvert.



W. M. LANA.

CORRUGATED SHEET METAL GULVBRT.

. APPLICATION FILED FEB.14, 1908.

Patented Mar.1,1910;

WILLIAM It'll. LANA,

or HARJLAN, town.

CORRUGATED SHEET-METAL G'ULV EIRT.

Specification of Letters Patent. ye -t p st 1, 191p,

Application filed February 14,,

race Serial no. 415,950.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM M. LANA, a citizen of the United States,residing at lla-rlan, in the county of Shelby and State ot lowa, haveinvented a new and useful tudinal center, said parts being detachablyconnected so that a number of upper sections may be nested together, tobe shipped and a number of lower sections may also be nested togetherfor shipping, to thereby occupy a minimum of space, and be easilyhandled, shipped and'stored.

it further object is to provide iin roved means for connecting togetherthe a jacent ends of corrugated sheet metal culverts.

A further object is to provide improved means for connecting togetherthe upper and lower culvert sections.

A further object is to provide reinforcing rods tor the upper member ofa culvert, to thereby strengthen and brace said upper s'ection'in caseswhere the culvert is made of I com arativel lar e diameter and consistsP y g a t-lti of comparatively thin sheet'nietal, which would not ofitself bear the load likely to be placed on it.

A. further object is to provide an improved end plate tor culvertsections.

My invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combinationof the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated areattained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims,and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 shows adetailsectional perspective view of a part of a reinforced sheet metalcorrugated culvert embodying my invention, and provided with an endplate connected thereto. Fig. 2 shows atransverse sectional'view of asheet metal culvert embodying my invention; Fig. 3 is" a simi lar viewon a reduced scale, showing a modithe upper culvert section is formed ofsheet metal, and is provided with transverse corrugations throughout itslength. The corrugations are indicated by the numeral 10,

and at the ends of the culvert l have formed the flanges 11 that extendoutwardly at right angles to thelongitndinal axis of the culvert,-asclearly shown in Fig. l. In order to provide for connecting the ends oftwo adjacent culverts together, I extend bolts .12, or other suitablefasteningdevices, through said flanges. tlbviously, this may easily bedone, because both sides of the flanges are accessible to the operator,and

holes may be punched to receive the bolts or other fastening devices.

. The lower culvert section is also made of sheet metal, and providedwith mating corrugations. duch lower section, however, is arranged onamuch greater curvature than the upper section, and its centralportionextends only a slight distance below a line drawn through its endportions. The corrugations in the lower sectionare indicated b thenumeral 13, and the said lower section is preferably made wide enough topermit the endsolt' the upper section to rest upon the tops of thecorrugations in said lower section, as clearly shown in Fig. 2.Ubviously, by forming the upper and lower sections in separate pieces, alarge number of upper sections may be nested together for shipping andstoring, and a similar number of lower sections may be similarlyarranged.-

In order to provide water tight joints at the intersection of the upperand lower sec tions, 1 have provided connecting strips 14. These arealso made of corrugated sheet metal, the corrugations being arranged toaccurately fit over the corrugations in both the upper and lowersections, as clearly shown in Fig. 1. Then the connecting pieces andculvert sections. are firmly hel together by means of rivets 15 passedthrough the connecting pieces and the upper sections, and rivets 16passed through the connecting pieces and the lower sections. Obviously,a culvert constructed in this mannor has a maximum strength, with aminimum amount of material.

lln some instances, it is desirable to malt e culvert sections ofcomparatively large d1- ameter, out of comparatively thin sheet metal,and in order to dolhis, and to make the culvert strong enough towithstand pres- IlO - reinforcing rods will beavailable against crushingstrains from aboveon the culvert, and the said rods are connected withthe culvert at the point where the 'culvert is i strongly reinforced bythe connecting strips 14. .I have also provided a retaining Wall for theend of the culvert, which retaining wall comprises a frame 18 ofstructural steel, and a-body portion 19 of corrugated sheet metalconnected with the frame. This retaining wall is then riveted to the endof the .culvert and is held in proper position with relation thereto, bymeans of brace rods of the kind indicated by the numeral 20, and shownin Fig. 1. I havealso provided an apron to be connected to the lowerculvert section at the discharge end thereof. This apron is indicated bythe numeral 21, and is connected by rivets 22 with the flange 11 at theend of the lower section. One of the advantages attained by the use of aculvert having its bottom section arranged on a comparatively greatcurvature, and its top section on a materially less curvature, is thatthe culvert is made wider at a point a short distance above its bottom,and hence, obstructions that enter the culvert are less likely to remaintherein, and such obstructions may be more easily washed out when theculvert is flushed, than would be the case with round or squareculverts. Furthermore, a culvert of this kind may be seated more firmlyin the ground, and be less likely to be moved by settling or washing outof the ground around the culvert.

In the modified form shown in Fig. 3, I have dispensed with the use ofconnecting pieces 14:, and haveformed on the ends of the lower section uwardly inclined corrugated portions 23 designed to fit into thecorrugations of the upper section, and firmly held to the upper sectionby means of rivets 24. In this way, I dispense with the use of the extraconnecting strips 14, and I preferably employ this orm of connecting theupper and lower sections together when constructing culverts ofcomparatively small slze.

Having thus described my invention, what i I claim and desire to secureby Letters Patcut, is

1. A culvert comprising an upper sheet metal section substantiallysemi-circular in cross section, and a lower sheet metal section having aslight downward curvature at its central portion, and means forconnecting the adjacent edges of said upper and lower sections together.

2. A culvert comprising an upper sheet metal section formed withtransverse corrugations and substantially semi-circular in crosssection, and a lower sheet metal section formed with transversecorrugations and having a comparatively slight downward curvature at itscentral portion, the adjacent edges of both sections having theircorrugations arranged to fit into each other, and means for securingsaid adjacent edges together.

3. A culvert comprising an upper sheet metal culvert section havingtransverse corrugations, and substantially semi-circular in crosssection, a lower sheet metal'culvcrt section having transversecorrugations, and having a slight downward curvature at its centralportion, and connecting strips having corrugations formed thereindesigned to fitinto the corrugations of both the upper and lowersections, and means for securing said connecting strips to bothsections.

4. A culvert comprising a sheet metal body portion having transversecorrugations formed therein, and a series of reinforcing rods secured tothe body portion and mounted in the corrugations therein, in such amanner that the corrugated structure will prevent tilting movements ofthe reinforcing rods.

5. A culvert comprising an upper sheet metal section having transversecorrugations and substantially semi-circular in cross section, a lowersheet metal section having ,similar transverse corrugations, the edgesof the upper section being designed to rest upon the edges of the lowersection, connect ing strips having corrugations designed to fit into thecorrugations of both sections,

rivets for connectlng the strips with both sections, and reinforcin rodshaving their ends connected with said rivets and their central portionscontained within the corrugations of the upper section.

6. A culvert com rising an upper sheet metal section formed withtransverse corrugations and substantially semi-circular incross-section, a lower sheet metal section formed with transversecorrugations and having a slight downward curvature at its centralportion, and means for connecting the adjacent edges of said upper andlower sections together.

7 The combination with a sheet metal culvert section having its endflared outwardly substantially at right angles to its longitudinal axis,of a sheet metal apron placed adjacent to said flared edge, and rlvetsconnectin the a ron and the flared edge.

8. T 1e com ination with a sheet-metal culvert section of a metal frame,a corrugated sheet metal retaining wall supported by said frame, saidparts belng connected to the culvert section.

9. The combination with a sheet metal culvert section, of a metal frame,a corrugated sheet metal retaining wall supported by said frame, saidframe and said corrugated retainin wall being both secured by rivets tothe on vert section, and supporting rods connected to the frame and tothe culvert section.

10. A culvert comprising an upper sheetmetal section substantiallysemi-clrcular in cross-section having its ends flared outwardsubstantially at right angles to the longitu- 'dinal axis, a lower sheetmetal section having a slight downward curvature at its central portion.and also having its ends flared slight downward curvature at itscentral portion and also having its ends flared outward substantially atright angles to the longitudinal axis, and means for connecting theadjacent edges of said upper and lower sections together.

12. The combination of two culvert lengths arranged end to end andrespectively comprising an upper sheet metal section substantiallysemi-circular incross-section formed with transverse corrugations andhaving its end adjacent to the end of the other culvert length flaredoutward. substantially at a right angle to the longitudinal axis, alower sheet metal section formed with transverse corrugations and havinga slight downward curvature at its central portion and also having itsend adjacent to the end of the other culvert length flared outwardsubstantially at a right angle to the longitudinal axis, means forconnecting the adjacent edges of said upper and lower sectionstoget-her,'and means such as bolts for connectmg said flared ends of theculvert lengths together. Des Moines, Iowa, Feb. 4:, 1908.

- WILLIAM M. LANA.

Witnesses: j

F. A. STEVENS, P. Jnssan.

